Karl Sichel

Deported to Theresienstadt on 23 September 1942 , murdered in Theresienstadt on 23 November 1942 Haugerring 15, today about Haugerring 6. Old maps of Würzburg show that the buildings were numbered in the opposite direction to today´s numbers and went from nos. 1 to 22. Today, the buildings are much larger than they were then and the house numbers only go up to no. 12.

	  Karl Sichel was a very successful businessman and linen manufacturer. He attended the Jewish primary school in Würzburg and then the Realschule for four years. After leaving school, he did a commercial training and was a merchant´s assistant - probably in Hofheim/Unterfranken. In 1896-99 he did military service in Cologne during which he was promoted to non-commissioned officer. On his return to Würzburg he set up a factory for home linen and cotton wares, Gebrüder Sichel (together with his brother Jakob who left the firm in 1917). The company specialised in elegant bed linen. From 1914 - 1918 Karl Sichel joined the war effort and was deployed above all in Russia as the sergeant of a building division. He was decorated with numerous medals. In 1919 he was a member of the citizens´ army which made a stand against the worker and soldier councils. From the 1920s he was a member of the Würzburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry and was nominated as a commercial judge. From about the same time he was also a member of the administration of the Jewish community in Würzburg and in particular represented the foundation and was a member of the board of the synagogue building association. He was involved in Jewish, but also non-denominational charitable work and for many years was the chairman or a member of the board of the Jewish assistance for small businesses, the Jewish welfare centre and the social committee of the Franconian Lodge (Bne Briss). In the Würzburg district welfare association he was Rabbi Hanover´s deputy, in addition a member of the inter-denominational committee to provide for citizens in need (which existed during the years of great inflation from 1922-23), a member of the association to build an old people´s home (paritätisches Altersheim) in about 1930, and a board member of the foundation to provide trousseaus for poor women, as well as a member of the Jewish cultural community. From about 1935 he was the head of the Jewish winter assistance organisation for the rabbinates of Würzburg and Kitzingen districts. He was also in various political, social and sports organisations such as the (liberal) German Democratic Party (DDP), the Reich Foundation for Jewish Front Soldiers, Club 1912, the Casino society, the Jewish gymnastics and sport club and the Jewish cultural organisation, the Kulturbund, Würzburg. In November 1936 the Gestapo investigated him for manufacturing swastika flags and other "national symbols" which he probably did as a favour to an "Aryan" company in Würzburg. During this investigation it was revealed that Sichel still had 16 "Aryan" businesses among its customers, some of them major clients. They included, for example, two well-known large shops which still exist or which survived for many decades in Würzburg, Völk and Seisser. Investigations began against them immediately, while those against Sichel were dropped. In April 1938 Sichel´s business was "Aryanised". In May the trading company as well as the factory were in new hands. In the November Pogrom of 1938 Karl Sichel was arrested. The health office pronounced him to be "well-nourished" as well as of sound heart and lungs, so that he was deemed "fit for camp and labour". On 20 November he was released from Dachau but the condition was imposed that he sell his home and all his property so that all the tax matters could be settled before his emigration to the USA. Karl Sichel had a considerable fortune in cash as well as two houses and two pieces of land used as gardens in and near Würzburg whose total value was fixed at the princely sum of 243,000 Reichsmarks. Karl Sichel had to deposit RM 80,000 as security for any capital flight tax which might be levied. Towards the end of 1941 Karl Sichel was forced to vacate his home and move with his wife to the "Jewish house" in Konradstraße 3 then to the one in Bibrastraße 6. From there Karl and Fanny Sichel were deported to Theresienstadt on 23 September 1942 where Karl Sichel died exactly two months later. http://www.stolpersteine-wuerzburg.de/wer_opfer_lang.php?&opferid=231

https://www.bundesarchiv.de/gedenkbuch/en961021

• Sichel, Karl
• born on 15th February 1876 in Veitshöchheim / Würzburg / Bayern
• resident of Würzburg
• Deportation: from Nürnberg-Würzburg-Regensburg 23rd September 1942, Theresienstadt, ghetto
• Date of death: 23rd November 1942
• Place of death: Theresienstadt, ghetto

http://www.holocaust.cz/databaze-dokumentu/dokument/89263-sichel-ka...